A big part of Mongolian culture is singing, or anything like it. It seems like there is a song for everything. I can understand that, I guess. That is, if it was not for absolutely everything. Is the president making a special holiday speech? Sure, have a song. Is the new kindergarten in town having a special opening ceremony? Sure, have a song. Is it a special holiday and you’re sharing company with a good friend? Sure, have a song. Are you hanging out with your buddies, late at night, doing a little drinking and talking about girls? Sure, by all means, please, have a song. I can’t tell you how many times I would be visiting with someone during Tsagaan Sar – or anytime, really – and someone will just start singing. Everyone stops whatever conversation they were having and joins in. Sometimes, depending on the amount of alcohol that has already been consumed, Mongolians go right into another song – as soon as they finish the first and have another shot.

A big part of Mongolian culture is singing, or anything like it. It seems like there is a song for everything. I can understand that, I guess. That is, if it was not for absolutely everything. Is the president making a special holiday speech? Sure, have a song. Is the new kindergarten in town having a special opening ceremony? Sure, have a song. Is it a special holiday and you’re sharing company with a good friend? Sure, have a song. Are you hanging out with your buddies, late at night, doing a little drinking and talking about girls? Sure, by all means, please, have a song. I can’t tell you how many times I would be visiting with someone during Tsagaan Sar – or anytime, really – and someone will just start singing. Everyone stops whatever conversation they were having and joins in. Sometimes, depending on the amount of alcohol that has already been consumed, Mongolians go right into another song – as soon as they finish the first and have another shot.

Springing from this love of all things song, Mongolians sometimes like to go to karaoke. While I was in UB last week, one of my Mongolian friends decided that she really really wanted to go to karaoke. It was never that big of a deal to me in the U.S., but, along with some other friends, I went. I told them that I would not be singing anything, no matter how much of a hard time they gave me. I was expecting something like I’d always seen back home: a bar with some tables and booths, people passing around the song book and selecting their song, then being called up to sing in front of the whole bar. Nope, nothing like that.

When we got there, we were directed to a private room downstairs. It was almost creepy down there, but once we were in the room, with the door shut, it was alright. There was a big wrap-around couch along the back wall, with a big coffee table sitting in front of it. In the front of the room was a big entertainment centre with a big-screen TV and all the karaoke, microphone, and speaker equipment. We told the guy we wanted 2 hours, so he punched the appropriate buttons on the machine, took our drink order, then left the room. We were left with drinks, two microphones, a song book, and a huge remote to select our song.

The lady who really wanted to go there didn’t even get settled before she flipped through the book, found the first of many of her most favourite song, punched the number into the pad, then got up to sing. It was good practice for me to read the words as I heard them sung. I usually have no idea what songs here are talking about. I could at least figure out the cipher for some of the songs I read. I did end up participating in a couple songs, but as you might imagine, they were American hip-hop. The other American that was with us likes hip-hop almost as much as I do. We got a good laugh out of one song. We’d heard it over a hundred times each, I’m sure. We didn’t know all the words, and we were not ready for the words that actually appeared on the screen.

They were the right words, but we weren’t expecting them. That clarified a few points in the song, and had us both laughing so hard that we lost where we were. Oh, and at the end of the song, you get a grade. The very first song that was sung got a 100. After that, the highest score I saw was a 99. Just another cultural award for having sang, no matter how bad of a job you did. Too bad I don’t know any songs.

Director Ron Tschetter: The PCOL InterviewPeace Corps Director Ron Tschetter sat down for an in-depth interview to discuss the evacuation from Bolivia, political appointees at Peace Corps headquarters, the five year rule, the Peace Corps Foundation, the internet and the Peace Corps, how the transition is going, and what the prospects are for doubling the size of the Peace Corps by 2011. Read the interview and you are sure to learn something new about the Peace Corps. PCOL previously did an interview with Director Gaddi Vasquez.

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Story Source: Personal Web Site

This story has been posted in the following forums: : Headlines; COS - Mongolia; Music; Blogs - Mongolia

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